Reel World

Defective Debut

The Albuquerque-lensed superhero parody Defective Man! will have its premiere this Friday and Saturday, May 28 and 29, at Guild Cinema (3405 Central NE). The film is directed by D. Ryan Mowry and stars Paul Alsing, Arturo Negro, Stephen W. Eckles and Josh Saavedra. The gleefully campy, proudly lowbrow, resolutely Troma-esque comedy follows the adventures of an inept crime-fighting quartet led by an overweight, middle-aged superhero in Spandex. You can check out the yock-filled trailer by logging on to sb-films.com. Screenings start at 10:30 p.m. Cast and crew will be there in person. This one’s been a long time in the making, so come show your hometown support and wallow in your love of trash cinema!

We’ve Got a Winner!

University of New Mexico student Barbara Ryckman just snagged a top prize at the Fulldome Film Festival held at the Zeiss-Planetarium in Jena, Germany. Ryckman’s immersive art film “Wander” captured the Creativity Award—which included a glass trophy from renowned optics company Zeiss and a cash prize of 500 euros. (That’s like 600 bucks to us Americans.) Ryckman created her short film in the “Immersive Media: Fulldome” class offered by the Department of Art and Art History’s Electronic Arts program. The course is supported through UNM’S ARTS Lab and its innovative “gDome” studio, which produces digital films for screening exclusively on dome-shaped planetarium screens. Four other students who created films in the Immersive Media class were selected as finalists in the Fulldome Film Festival. MFA graduate student Mitchell Marti received an honorable mention award for his film “Oculus.” Congrats to all involved! For more information, check out fulldome-festival.de or artslab.unm.edu.

Locals Get Some Love

The New Mexico Film Office has announced the winners of this year’s 2010 New Mexico Filmmakers Showcase. The four-day event took place at Guild Cinema May 13 through 16. More than 60 local filmmakers from around the state submitted their work. Overall winners were selected in the following categories: Best Comedy went to “Delivery Date” by Matt Page; Best Documentary went to “Genetic Chile” by Chris Dudley; Best Drama Feature went to Freeing Joshua by Freedom A. Hopkins; Best Drama Short went to “Red Mesa” by Ilana Lapid; Best Horror / Sci-Fi Short went to “Dissident” by Jeremy Orr; and Best Wildcard went to “The Crane” by Guy Butrum. For the fourth year, the N.M. Film Office will be roadshowing the winning films around to different areas of the state. Details of those screenings will be announced soon. Check out nmfilm.com for details.